Anne Collins

Anne Collins is the executive editor of Random House Canada, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada, and has been a vice president of the company since 1998. She spent 23 years as the publisher of Random House Canada, adding responsibility for Knopf Canada in 2009. Authors she’s worked with include Jann Arden, Julian Barnes, Gary Barwin, Cat Bohannon, Douglas Coupland, Roméo Dallaire, Cherie Dimaline, Don Gillmor, Michelle Good, Chris Hadfield, Brian Thomas Isaac, Wayne Johnston, Robert Kolker, Barry Lopez, Annabel Lyon, Linden MacIntyre, J.B. MacKinnon, Robert Macfarlane, J.B. MacKinnon, Ami McKay, Tessa McWatt, Sean Michaels, Carol Off, Richard Powers, Eden Robinson, Patti Smith, Padma Viswanathan, Martha Wainwright, Thomas Wharton, Alissa York and Ian Williams.

Before moving over to book publishing, Collins spent 20 years as an award-winning writer and magazine editor. She is the also the author of two acclaimed books of non-fiction: The Big Evasion (1985), the first and only Canadian history of the abortion issue, and In the Sleep Room: The Story of the CIA Brainwashing Experiments in Canada, which won the 1988 Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction. In 2019, she was honoured to receive the Ivy Award for “extraordinary contribution to publishing in Canada.” She lives with her family on a farm north of Whitby, Ontario.

FESTIVAL BOOK

In the Sleep Room

In August 1977, Canadians reacted with horror and revulsion when they learned that in the 1950s and early 1960s, one of the most eminent psychiatrists in the country had used his vulnerable patients as unwitting guinea pigs in brainwashing experiments funded by the CIA and the Canadian government. This is the spellbinding true story of unchecked ambition and the misuses of medical power.

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No longer in print.